Animagi magic, while useful, has its drawbacks. One large disadvantage is that it renders useless any magic the caster may use before and during his transformation into a creature. Severus mourned this fact now, for he'd have dearly loved to cast a Disillusionment Charm upon himself until he could learn more about the new world he was in.

Thus far, the forest had seemed normal – Severus had spotted familiar animals like birds, bees, and to his great relief, deer as well. However, he knew better than to be complacent – for every normal detail that he'd see in the woods, he'd notice something abnormal as well. Take the magical healing herbs he was holding in his mouth, for example. Severus' Potions-loving soul had him itching to sit down somewhere quiet and dissect the herb to see how he could use it.

Later, he thought firmly to himself, as he made his way nimbly through the woods. After I escape this blasted forest, I'll be able to examine it thoroughly. If I'm correct, all I need are a few other animal ingredients and I can ma…DUCK!

Acting on instinct, Severus just managed to bend his body into a deep crouch before an arrow came thudding into the tree beside him, right where his flank should have been. As it was, the arrow had just managed to graze a bloody furrow through his flesh. Ignoring the slight pain, Severus simultaneously leapt behind a thick tree and wheeled his body around to face the source of the arrow.

His large brown eyes narrowed as he attempted to distinguish his attacker, only to widen in shock as part of the foliage separated from the trees. A man, wearing green. Damn my color-blind Animagus form. For all his grousing and indignation at being attacked, however, he couldn't suppress the relief that coursed through his body at the sight of another human. Looks like this world is pretty similar to my own, after a…Hmm. What's that noise? His inexperienced ears had picked up a strange sound. It seemed rather like there was a stampede rushing towards him and the hunter. But a stampede of...what?

Suddenly, a sound arced above the sound of running feet. Severus' eyes, already wide with apprehension, dilated in pure unadulterated terror. For he knew that sound. It was a horrible sound. A sound that heralded every deer's doom.

The baying of hounds.

If Severus had been still capable of logical thought then, he'd have taken the opportunity to change back into human form and to cast the Disillusionment Charm upon himself. After all, he was one of the few strong wizards of his time known to successfully cast wandless magic. Then, he could have quietly stalked the hunter as he traveled out of the forest, and that would be the end of it.

However, that tactic didn't take into account the second largest disadvantage of Animagi magic. Namely, the problem of animal instincts overpowering human intelligence. And this was what Severus was currently facing. In a stressful situation like this, where there could be dozens – No, hundreds! Thousands!- of predators after him, power and logic were temporarily shunted aside, as Severus' deer instincts dominated his psyche and screamed at him to RUN! RUN! RUN! So, what could Severus do?

He ran.

Blomyr cursed as his prey leaped into the underbrush, away from the hounds. "I was aiming for her!" He yelled at the approaching huntsmen.

Guryn roared with laughter and clapped Blomyr on his shoulder. "Aye, no need to get all huffy lad! You'll get more chances in the future."

"Especially if he refrains from wandering off on his own," Owathol said sharply. "Come on, we've wasted precious time trying to find you. Cadilein will not be happy if we go home empty-handed."

"I could've bagged that deer if your hounds hadn't scared him away," Blomyr grumbled sulkily, carefully ignoring the fact that his arrow had missed the doe on first try. "Besides, I don't see why we can't hunt separately, we'd make much less noise that way…"

The grizzled hunter scowled and cuffed Blomyr sharply. "Don't be daft, boy. If we left you alone, you'd be eaten up by some wild beastie in a snap. Now stop jabbering and follow those hounds!"

This is not a good day for me. Bitten by Nagini, dying, seeing Albus, bumbling through alien woods, getting chased by mangy mutts and possibly killed…" Severus listed out his woes as he ran. Fortunately, after the initial panic, logic had reasserted itself in his mind. Unfortunately, he couldn't come up with any good plans to escape the hounds at the moment. Changing back to human form before a group of strangers is unthinkable. Hiding from them is impossible. Merlin, to have arrived at a new world only to be killed on the first day…

Finally, he was cornered. Chest heaving and flanks quivering, he backed up into a large tree as the slavering, hellish mutts surrounded him. Five mutts. Three hunters. He was outnumbered, injured, and completely exhausted. Watching the eldest hunter nock his arrow, while the youngest glared at him vengefully – am I to apologize for avoiding your shot? Idiot – Severus contemplated the possibility of him transforming back into human form. And wandlessly stunning both mutts and hunters before any could react. And Obliviating them all, again wandlessly. His conclusion?

No. Chance. Of. Success.

With his options laid out before him that way, Severus was feeling fairly…fatalistic. He knew very well that the last, the most logical, the only course of action that he could take would obviously be to change back and suffer the consequences - but his pride rebelled at the thought of giving up one of his most precious secrets, of submitting to the dubious mercy of strangers and begging for his survival.

Maybe Albus was right. Maybe he was meant to die. At least this time, he wasn't dying in the grungy old Shrieking Shack. At least this time, his last image of the world wouldn't be a hated werewolf's den, but instead a beautiful forest, surrounded by birds chirping in their nests and flowers swaying in the wind and bees humming in their beehives and…

Wait. There are...I can...Oh. Oh. Oh!

Severus' eyes had widened and his panicked breaths had slowed. Inspiration had struck. His brain worked furiously as his eyes darted around the clearing, considering all the angles to his new plan.

It was reckless.

It was foolish.

It was dangerous.

It...might actually just work.

If deer could smile, the hunters would've fled screaming at Severus' menacing grin.

"Well, looks like we'll be having fresh venison for dinner tomorrow! Cadilein will be pleased," Guryn grinned. Blomyr scowled at Guryn, then at the deer. Which was…scowling back? Blomyr stared at her in confusion, before shaking his head to clear it. Deer couldn't scowl. That was an even more ridiculous idea than the image of Owathol smiling.

Blomyr's own glower returned full-force as he was reminded of his grievances with the man. Why couldn't Owathol stop belittling him? He wouldn't even let Blomyr shoot a trapped deer – no, Owathol had to do it himself! It was demeaning to be treated like a child – he should just complain to his mother about this and let her deal with it. Oh, he could already imagine what would happen – Owathol would cower, Cadilein would shriek and scream and harangue Owathol into madness. That'd teach Owathol to respect Blomyr! He should do that the minute they returned home…

Lost in his pleasant fantasies, Blomyr nearly didn't notice the doe tensing her legs. Even then, he dismissed it as unimportant, a prey's last struggles for freedom. Where could she go anyway? She was surrounded by hounds from all sides. There was nowhere she could move…

Except.

She could move.

Upward.

In one graceful bound, the doe leaped onto the nearest low-hanging branch. Even as the branch cracked and broke away from the tree, the doe was scrambling onto another branch on a further tree. The hounds were barking, Owathol was yelling even as Blomyr's jaw dropped, even as his mind stuttered at the utter inconceivability of a…of a…of a tree-climbing doe!

"Impossible," breathed Guryn at his side, as quick-thinking Owathol shot at the doe – and missed when the creature bent her body at an unimaginable angle to avoid it, and Blomyr should be gloating now because Owathol had never missed a shot, but his mind just couldn't get past the fact that the doe was climbing, climbing, and now leaping to the ground and kicking against a small log which came flying towards the hunters and dogs and…were those bees flying out of the log?

At that point, Blomyr's mind completely shut down, and he ran.

"That. Was incredible." An hour after the incident, and Guryn was still talking about it. Blomyr would have liked to agree, but he was still preoccupied with replaying the memory over and over in his head. Owathol scowled as he wrapped his arms with bandages while walking in quick, angry strides. As he had been actively chasing the doe when she kicked the log at them, he'd been the closest to the log when it split apart, causing the beehive it was housing to break and setting loose the swarm of angry bees. Blomyr was going to treasure that memory for all eternity.

"Truly. That. Was utterly incredible. A doe, a simple doe could actually climb. And have an actual plan of escape! That's just so incredible. Was it truly a doe? Or perhaps an astounding woodland goddess in disguise? I just can't believe that she climbed. And she avoided your shot, Owathol! That's just so incre..."

"Alright, that's enough!" Owathol was finally pushed to his limit. "It was a doe. An intelligent doe, but a doe nonetheless. Now we're going to have to think of our other problems."

"What other problems?" Blomyr protested, his mind jarred out of its stupor by Owathol's unpleasant tone. "Don't tell me that you can't stand a couple of bee-stings? Or getting bested by a doe? Aren't you tough enough to…?"

"Those aren't the problems I was referring to," said Owathol with chilling dignity. "I was rather, referring to what we should do when Cadilein realizes we haven't caught anything today."

All thoughts of the doe vanished in an instant. Blomyr gulped audibly as he thought of his mother. And pictured her terrible wrath turned upon them. All of them.

Suddenly, thoughts of her in a temper with Owathol didn't seem so funny after all.

Unnoticed by all three, a shadow had been walking alongside them for some time. The shadow smirked as he listened to the foreign babbling of the idiots and kicked at a bewildered hound. It was good to finally find some guides to lead him out of the forest.